Devil's Bodyguard - Re Act [Zhoren/PersianVersion]

The thing about taverns, was that the people in it irritated him by their lack of direction. Which was fine, since people usually came to such places to lose their direction, to their hair down and relax. He was not that much of a hypocrite so as to deny that fact; after all, he had come to such a place of his own will. His reason for doing so was quite different from the others that had attended the tavern however; and unlike those others, he found himself unable to drink anything other than water.

"You leavin' us Maou?" Asked the brute who sat on the other side of the table, along with the rest of his merry band of mercenaries.

Maou tilted his head slightly at the remark. Of course, there was much more to this scene than met the eye, as was usually the case in the tale that was his life.

'Maou'. He had introduced himself with that name since he had entered this continent. Most did not recognize the foreign dialect which formed the word and thus could not fathom its meaning. Nor did any in this continent recognize him or his fame. This much was fine with him. Never again was he going to let some lord pick him out because of his reputation. So as not to repeat the situation for which he was now a 'strategist without a lord', he had decided to ensure that he would personally select the one he was to serve next time.

His previous lord turned out to be some common bandit -- a dog wearing a dragon's hide -- unworthy of his service. After a while, he had simply faked his death and left the continent. Such a thing was a simple matter for him. To get acquainted with these strange new lands, he had joined up with a band of mercenaries, serving as their archer, strategist, and emergency medic where required. It was not bad for an introduction, but his skill was not meant for this ragtag bunch, nor was he satisfied at consistently failing to find a challenge worthy of his wit. But a certain renowned guild in this strange city was recruiting it seemed, so he decided that it was as good a time as any to try his luck once more.

In fact, he had already filled a recruitment form at the local Guild Hall. The name, he had put as 'Maou'; in 'weapon proficiencies', he had put in 'archery' and 'small weapons'. In 'previous experience', he had put in one single word -- 'Bodyguard'. After all, there was no point in putting down 'strategist' given that he wanted to avoid being used like his previous lord had deemed fit to. If his new lord was appropriate, they would soon find out what this 'Maou' was capable of, if not, then he would likely end up leaving anyway...

"Indeed... I have put in a guild recruitment form, speaking of which, I believe 'tis almost time for the results to be posted." He said, standing up.

He was not dumb, he realized well enough that the mercenaries had only bothered asking him since they were squeamish about handing over his part of the loot, which was fine since he did not have need of it anyway.

"Thank you for everything, please feel free to share my part of the spoils amongst yourselves." He said with a slight smirk, before turning to leave.

"Happy hunting barky." One of the brutes yelled after him.

---

When he arrived at the guild hall, he found that the selection process had already started, which was good, since the long queue seemed to have shortened a bit. Sighing softly at the excited chatter of rookies, Maou stood at the end of the queue, awaiting his turn. Something told him that the proverbial wheels of fate were about to turn...